1947 flying disc craze

Reports of unidentified flying objects in 1947 In 1947, from June to July, a rash of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the United States were widely publicized by the news media.https://books.google.com/books?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, Ch 2 'The 1947 Flap' Curtis Peebles March 24, 1995 Berkley Books 9780425151174 Google Bookshttp://www.newspapers.com/image/60409408/ 11 Jul 1947, Page 4 - The Evening Review am Newspapers.comhttp://www.newspapers.com/image/139105098/ 13 Apr 1948, Page 18 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch Newspapers.com The craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's story of witnessing disc-shaped objects which headline writers dubbed "Flying Saucers". Such reports quickly spread throughout the United States; historians would later chronicle at least 800 "copycat" reports in subsequent weeks, while other sources estimate the reports may have numbered in the thousands.https://books.google.com/books?id=eHo2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT238 Why Statues Weep: The Best of the "Skeptic" Wendy M. Grossman Christopher C. French 2017 Routledge 9781134962525 Google Books 172https://books.google.com/books?id=1cfVtAEACAAJ The Myth and Mystery of UFOs Thomas E. Bullard 2016 University Press of Kansas 9780700623389 Google Books 53 Reports peaked on July 7. After numerous hoaxes and mistaken identifications, the disc reports largely subsided by July 10. Mainstream sources speculated that the disc reports were caused by novel technology, mistaken identifications, or mass hysteria. By contrast, fringe speculation held that the discs might have come from other planets or other dimensions; still others suggested the discs were occult or might signify the end of the world. The 1947 craze has been extensively studied within the frameworks of both folklore studies and religious studies, where it is regarded by scholars as the "birth of a modern myth". Overview If people saw chimaeras back in the days when Greek mythology was being born, it should not be wondered at that people are seeing supersonic discs in this Flash Gordon era. Denver Post (July 3, 1947) 30% In late June 1947, the press in the United States began covering reports of flying discs.Bloecher p. 21 Reports increased, with a sharp rise on July 4; over the course of the next five days, there were widespread reports throughout the entirety of the United States. Reports crested on July 7, gradually diminishing over the subsequent week, amid numerous hoaxes, pranks, and mistaken identifications. The flying saucer craze of 1947 was thoroughly and widely covered in media nationwide, with some contemporary observers interpreting the disc sightings as 'modern folklore'. On July 3, midway through the craze, the Denver Post opined: "Even before Plato, scholars were perplexed by what is real and what isn't...Finally Descartes came along with the theory that 'whatever I apprehend clearly and distinctly is true' and on the basis of such authority it seems unimportant whether people actually saw the discs or only thought they did...If people saw chimaeras back in the days when Greek mythology was being born, it should not be wondered at that people are seeing supersonic discs in this Flash Gordon era."http://www.newspapers.com/image/624924963/ 3 Jul 1947, 14 - Ventura County Star Newspapers.com In 2020, Religious Studies professor David J. Halpern similarly argued "UFOs are a myth but myths are real."https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781503612129/html Intimate Alien David J. Halperin March 24, 2020 Stanford University Press www.degruyter.com 10.1515/9781503612129 9781503612129 240572019 Howard Henry Peckham opined: "The 'flying saucers' may have been a hoax, imagination, illusion, mirages, phantoms of preposterous eyesight, et al, yet they caused a phenomenon reverberations of which were heard around the world." The 1947 craze has long been of interest to scholars of folklore studies.http://www.jstor.org/stable/27650026 Flying Saucers as Folklore Peckham, Howard H. 1950 Hoosier Folklore 9 4 103–107 27650026 Halpern argues that "The power and fascination of the UFO has nothing to do with space travel or life on other planets. It's about us, our longings and terrors". Roland Barthes, a 'founding father' of cultural studies, recalled "The mystery of flying saucers was at first entirely terrestrial: we suspected that the saucers came from the Soviet netherworld, from this world as devoid of clear intentions as another planet."https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230361362_12 Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century Pierre Lagrange Alexander C. T. Geppert April 29, 2012 Palgrave Macmillan UK 224–244 Springer Link 10.1057/9780230361362_12https://books.google.com/books?id=W0VYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century Alexander C. T. Geppert 2018 Springer 9781349953394 Google Books Folklorist Gordon Arnold similarly writes: "Many aspects of the great flying saucer wave raise questions about human behavior and America's social, cultural, and political inclinations".https://books.google.com/books?id=8GBVEAAAQBAJ Flying Saucers Over America: The UFO Craze of 1947 Gordon Arnold 2021 McFarland 9781476646527 Google Books Ted Bloecher argued that the 1947 craze is "the most fascinating of any to examine because of its unique position at the very beginning" of flying saucer folklore. Writes Bloecher: "There were no 'attitudes' about UFOs in June 1947. There were no preconceptions, no misconceptions, no 'policies' by either press or public, or by any official agencies".https://books.google.com/books?id=kBJDAAAAIAAJ Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 Ted Bloecher May 19, 1967 Google Books Folklorist Howard Henry Peckham similarly argued that "students of folklore have had a rare opportunity to witness the birth and development of a modern myth – the 'flying saucers'". Background By 1947, US national security concerns led to unprecedented scrutiny of airspace near US atomic sites and increased media coverage of UFO reports in US airspace. 1940s weapons development thumb|right|A balloon bomb launched from Japan briefly interfered with plutonium production at Hanford. A coverup prevented Japan from learning the balloons had reached the US. Atomic weapons were developed by the US Military during World War Two as a part of the Manhattan Project.Ruppelt Edward J. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17346 1956 Uranium enrichment was performed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, while plutonium production took place at Hanford, Washington. Bomb design and construction took place at Los Alamos, New Mexico. As a result, air power had increased greatly in both lethality and range over the course of World War Two: At the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, 350 Japanese aircraft killed 2,500 people in a sneak attack after flying a few hundred miles, but by the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just two American bombers killed up to 250,000 people after flying a full 1,500 miles.Frequently Asked Questions about the Atomic-bomb Survivor Research Program https://www.rerf.or.jp/en/faq/ 10 March 2025 Radiation Effects Research Foundation (Formerly known as the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC)) During the war, Japan deployed intercontinental balloon bombs that started wildfires and in one case even took out power at the Hanford plutonium production facility; a domestic censorship campaign successfully prevented Japan from learning the weapons had, in fact, reached the United States. Inspired by the Japanese balloons, the US created their own high-flying balloons in Project Mogul, an attempt to detect potential Soviet atomic tests.McAndrew James https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/RoswellReportCaseClosed.pdf?ver=2017-05-22-113519-430 The Roswell Report: Case Closed 1997 US Government Printing Office 978-0-16-049018-7 Washington, DC Meanwhile, Germany had developed rockets, jet fighters, and designs for an intercontinental bomber. Soviet and American governments both learned of Axis technical advances and employed Axis scientists in their race for technical superiority after the war. Increased scrutiny of US airspace thumb|right|1940s-era US radar equipment Direct US atomic attack against Soviets had been a possibility since 1945, when the nation unveiled the first intercontinental bomber, able to reach the Soviet Union from American soil."Video: Biggest Bomber, 1946/08/15." Universal Newsreel, 1946. Retrieved: 20 February 2012. By 1946, Army officials feared a Soviet surprise attack on US atomic facilities.Peebles, p. 90 Soviet bombers had developed the range to strike Hanford and still return to base, or even to strike Los Alamos or Oak Ridge in a one-way attack. Atomic sites were among the first places in the United States to operate radar, supported by spotters for visual confirmation and squadrons of fighters to defend against potential threats. The start of the Cold War in the summer of 1947 affected how media covered reports of unidentified things in the sky. In earlier eras, such reports were covered as religion, folklore, or tall tales, but the development of atomic weapons and intercontinental vehicles meant even a small number of adversarial overflights could have huge national security implications. Writing in 2020, Skeptical Inquirer author Eric Wojciechowski argued: "From all the available evidence, it appears that in 1947, the U.S. military was accepting anecdotal reports of flying saucers at face value. Perhaps they did so as a precaution to ensure no foreign threats were present. Missing something such as advanced enemy aircraft over one’s own territory could have been disastrous."https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/03/general-nathan-f-twining-and-the-flying-disc-problem-of-1947/ General Nathan F. Twining and the Flying Disc Problem of 1947 | Skeptical Inquirer 3 March 2020 In Mid-April 1947, meteorologist Walter A. Minczewski and his staff at a Richmond Virginia station released a balloon and were tracking it when they observed a silver, ellipsoidal object just below it. The object appeared to be flat on bottom and domed on tope. The observed it via theodolite for fifteen seconds.Blocher, p.21 Events of Summer 1947 Cold War thumb|350px|right|Animation of reports during the flying disc craze The year 1947 was marked by renewed tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. On March 13, American president Harry Truman pledged to contain the communist uprisings in Greece and Turkey. More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations thought to be threatened by Soviet communism.https://books.google.com/books?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth Curtis Peebles 1995 Berkley Books 9780425151174 Google Books On April 16, statesman Bernard Baruch coined the term "Cold War" to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.https://www.politico.com/story/2010/04/bernard-baruch-coins-term-cold-war-april-16-1947-035862 Bernard Baruch coins term 'Cold War,' April 16, 1947 Politico 16 April 2010 November 10, 2020 The Truman Doctrine's Significance https://www.historyonthenet.com/truman-doctrine-significance History on the Net Having lost 27 million people in the war, the Soviet Union pushed for returning Germany to a pastoral state without heavy industry. Despite Soviet objections, on June 5, Secretary of State George Marshall announced a comprehensive program of American assistance to reindustrialize European nations.Marshall, George C, The Marshal Plan Speech, June 5, 1947 The summer of 1947 featured widespread publications about atomic energy and war. On June 27, retired Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts warned the US was headed "down the old familiar road of appeasement" towards "An all-out shooting World War III".http://www.newspapers.com/image/564374740/ 27 Jun 1947, 9 - Spokane Chronicle Newspapers.com On June 30, Albert Einstein and fellow scientists warned of a possible atomic war within a decade.http://www.newspapers.com/image/628457201/ 30 Jun 1947, 2 - Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News Newspapers.com A three-week conference about radioactive chemicals in medicine began at the University of California in San Francisco. On July 1, Representative John Dingell criticized hosting of German atomic scientists in places like El Paso.http://www.newspapers.com/image/429442639/ 1 Jul 1947, 1 - El Paso Times Newspapers.com Initial reports Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting USA 150 right June 25 - Kenneth Arnold sighting near Mount Rainier USA 7 46.718405 -122.18727 On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/h). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs.Peebles pp. 7–12 When Arnold landed in Yakima, he described what he had seen to a number of pilot friends, who suggested that maybe he had seen guided missiles or a new airplane being secretly developed by the United States Army.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ddB7do2jUx8C&dat=19470627&printsec=frontpage Spokane Daily Chronicle News.google.com 24 June 2022 After refueling, he continued on his way to an air show in Pendleton, Oregon. He was first interviewed by reporters the next day (June 25), when he went to the office of the East Oregonian in Pendleton.Lagrange, Pierre (1988), "It Seems Impossible, but There It Is", in John Spencer & Hilary Evans (eds.), Phenomenon: From Flying Saucers to UFOs – Forty Years of Facts and Research. London: Futura Publications, 1988, pp. 26–45. Any skepticism the reporters might have harbored evaporated when they interviewed Arnold at length,Lagrange, Pierre (1998), A Moment in History: An Interview with Bill Bequette, International UFO Reporter, Vol. 23, n° 4, Winter, pp. 15, 20 as historian Mike Dash records:Dash, Mike, Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown; Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2000; 0-87951-724-7 Arnold had the makings of a reliable witness. He was a respected businessman and experienced pilot...and seemed to be neither exaggerating what he had seen, nor adding sensational details to his report. He also gave the impression of being a careful observer...These details impressed the newspapermen who interviewed him and lent credibility to his report. Kenneth Arnold radio interview, June 1947 The following day, Arnold was interviewed on the radio about his sighting and his story was published in afternoon and evening editions of regional papers.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54076142/kenneth-arnold-ufo-sighting-june-25/ Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting Corvallis Gazette-Times June 25, 1947 1 newspapers.com By June 26, Arnold's story was being widely reported throughout the United States. Additional reports Arnold's report was the first of many.Peebles - chapter 2 On June 26, press reported that Byron Savage of Oklahoma City had seen a flying disc about six weeks prior.http://www.newspapers.com/image/624257337/ 26 Jun 1947, 1 - The Sacramento Bee Newspapers.comhttps://books.google.com/books?id=kBJDAAAAIAAJ Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 Ted Bloecher April 7, 1967 Google Bookshttps://books.google.com/books?id=CmFVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 Flying Saucers Over America: The UFO Craze of 1947 Gordon Arnold December 3, 2021 McFarland 9781476687667 Google Books That same day, press reported that a Kansas City carpenter named W. I. Davenport recalled having seen nine discs while working on a roof the prior Wednesday.http://www.newspapers.com/image/564372494/ 26 Jun 1947, 1 - Spokane Chronicle Newspapers.comG. Arnold, Ch. 4 Also on June 26, photographer E.H. Sprinkle of Eugene, Oregon reported having attempted to take a photograph of a formation of nine bright objects in the prior weeks.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11961250/flying-discs/ flying discs The Courier-Journal June 27, 1947 1 newspapers.comhttps://www.newspapers.com/clip/11713669/case-13-e-h-sprinkle/ Case # 13 E. H. Sprinkle The Eugene Guard June 26, 1947 1 newspapers.com http://www.newspapers.com/image/624259269/ 28 Jun 1947, 4 - The Sacramento Bee Newspapers.comhttps://books.google.com/books?id=IINjCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 Washington Myths and Legends: The True Stories behind History's Mysteries Lynn Bragg 2015 Rowman & Littlefield 9781493016044 Google Books Pacific Northwest reports amid jet speculation June 27 saw reports of past sightings from a housewife in Bremerton, a home-builder in Bellingham, a motorist and his family from Wenatachee, a couple from Salem, and a woman from Yakima.http://www.newspapers.com/image/768897049/ 27 Jun 1947, 1 - The Bellingham Herald Newspapers.com On June 28, press nationwide reported the opinion of Army rocket expert Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, who speculated the "discs" were jet airplanes; Turner explained that "the jet planes' circular exhaust glows brightly when heated and might easily appear to be discs at a distance.Arnold, G. p. 30http://www.newspapers.com/image/17214707/ 28 Jun 1947, Page 1 - The Gallup Independent Newspapers.com Also on June 28, original disc witness Kenneth Arnold publicly criticized the lack of any official investigation into his sighting. Said Arnold: "If I was running the country and someone reported something unusual, I'd certainly want to know more about it."http://www.newspapers.com/image/701792044/ 30 Jun 1947, 1 - The Fresno Bee Newspapers.com Reports throughout the West On June 28, the Denver Post reported on a crew of seven railway workers in Colorado Springs who claimed to have seen a disc the prior May. Also on June 28, press covered reports from a mother and son in Seattle, three airport employees in Cedar City, a family near Boise, an optometrist in El Paso, a dentist in Silver City and a railroad engineer in Joliet; all claimed to have seen discs.http://www.newspapers.com/image/624259174/ 28 Jun 1947, 1 - The Sacramento Bee Newspapers.comhttp://www.newspapers.com/image/797769263/ 28 Jun 1947, 1 - El Paso Herald-Post Newspapers.comhttp://www.newspapers.com/image/50526757/ 28 Jun 1947, Page 1 - The San Bernardino County Sun Newspapers.com Potential explanations offered Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner of the White Sands Proving Ground publicly initially speculated the discs "must have been" jet airplanes but later told press that the New Mexico flying disc reports were the result of meteorites.http://www.newspapers.com/image/10286931/ 29 Jun 1947, Page 1 - The Mexia Daily News Newspapers.com On June 28, Washington-based ironworks operator Ray Taro speculated that the "flying discs" were caused by his foundry, which had been melting bottlecaps, expelling "little aluminum discs" which were blown out of the foundry smoke stacks.Spartanburg Herald, South Carolina – 28 Jun 47http://www.newspapers.com/image/138615089/ 29 Jun 1947, Page 1 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch Newspapers.com On June 28, Oklahoma sightings were revealed as handbills released from an airplane.http://www.newspapers.com/image/774335922/ 29 Jun 1947, 17 - Wichita Falls Times Newspapers.com thumb|right|Col. Harold R. Turner, commander of the White Sands Proving Ground, speculated the reports were caused by rockets or meteors. By June 29, one source reported that "These discs, some people suggest, may presage an invasion from Mars."http://www.newspapers.com/image/503032645/ 29 Jun 1947, 12 - Carlsbad Current-Argus Newspapers.com Others suggested the discs were Russian weapons, akin to the incendiary balloons released by the Japanese to cross the Pacific and explode in the US.http://www.newspapers.com/image/210766243/ 6 Jul 1947, Page 30 - The Times Newspapers.comhttps://books.google.com/books?id=TQ3BBAAAQBAJ Mirage Men: A Journey into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs. Mark Pilkington July 29, 2010 Little, Brown Book Group 9781849012409 Google Books Speculation suggested that the Navy's experimental Flying Flapjack might be responsible for disc sightings.http://www.newspapers.com/image/797769397/ 30 Jun 1947, 1 - El Paso Herald-Post Newspapers.com On June 30, one Oregon preacher suggested that the discs were "the 'advance guard' of universal disaster, heralding the end of the world".http://www.newspapers.com/image/628197575/ 1 Jul 1947, 4 - Lodi News-Sentinel Newspapers.com On July 1, Air Force intelligence officer Col. Alfred Kalberer and astronomer Oscar Monnig briefed press to provide reassurance that "we're not being invaded by little platter-like planes from Mars".http://www.newspapers.com/image/636946287/ 1 Jul 1947, 6 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram Newspapers.com Monnig described the sightings as "an interesting study in human psychology", arguing that after upon hearing Arnold's initial report, a colleague laughed and predicted "Watch the reports pour in now, from all across the country, from people who will imagine they have seen these things, too". Kalberer cited the Orson Welles broadcast and the May 1947 Tokyo Sea Monster broadcast. Kalberer joked that he wished "someone would put salt on the tail of one of these discs and catch it like our grandmothers used to tell us to do if we wished to catch a bird", adding "They're such friendly little discs. They seem to flip around and do all sorts of kittenish antics". Also on July 1, headlines like "Flying Disc Deal 'Solved'" reported that a flying disc had been recovered in New Mexico after a local man chased the object until it landed. The object was identified as a "five by eight inch piece of tinfoil".http://www.newspapers.com/image/79807919/ 1 Jul 1947, Page 2 - The Post-Register Newspapers.com In San Angelo, on July 2 the press relayed a report from Ivy T. Young who speculated that his hobby of releasing silvery balloons with his name attached may have been responsible for the disc sightings.http://www.newspapers.com/image/781616993/ 2 Jul 1947, 1 - San Angelo Standard-Times Newspapers.com Increasing prominence From June 24 to July 1, official response was one of skepticism and humor; that changed during the first week of July, when reports from reputable witnesses prompted further reactions and investigations. Lt. Governor sighting followed by official investigation On July 2, Idaho Lt. Governor Donald S. Whitehead revealed publicly that both he and Boise Justice J.M. Lampert had witnessed objects on June 24, the day of Arnold's sighting.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291520/ 2 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News Newspapers.comhttps://books.google.com/books?id=7aJVq5-ZkuEC&pg=PA180 Outbreak!: The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior Hilary Evans Robert E. Bartholomew April 11, 2009 Anomalist Books, LLC 9781933665252 Google Bookshttps://books.google.com/books?id=D5tTAAAAMAAJ Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 Ted Bloecher April 23, 1967 Google Books The next day, papers nationwide reported that Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining, commander of Wright Field, had announced that Air Material Command had opened a probe into the discs. Twining claimed that a "reputable scientist" had seen the disc-like objects in flight. Twining urged all persons seeing the strange objects in flight to contact Wright Field.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291653/ 3 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News Newspapers.com That day, headlines proclaimed "U.S. Stops 'Laughing Off' Stories of Flying Discs", quoting an Army Air Force spokesman as saying "If some foreign power is sending flying discs over the United States, it is our responsibility to know about it and take proper action".http://www.newspapers.com/image/683746478/ 3 Jul 1947, 1 - Los Angeles Evening Citizen News Newspapers.com Army experts acknowledged that they could not explain the disc and reported having checked research authorities and contractors, none of whom knew anything concrete about the discs.http://www.newspapers.com/image/38901616/ 3 Jul 1947, Page 2 - The Times Newspapers.com They suggested the discs might be the product of a civilian inventor.http://www.newspapers.com/image/358928569/ 3 Jul 1947, 1 - The Daily News-Journal Newspapers.com The Idaho Statesman quoted an unnamed military officer as saying he thought the air forces and FBI had been showing "complacency" by not pushing for a more "vigorous investigation". It also reported that Kenneth Arnold has not been contacted by military or the FBI about his sighting.http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487694/ 3 Jul 1947, 1 - The Idaho Statesman Newspapers.com The Statesman quoted the FBI special agent in charge of the area's FBI force, W.G. Banister, who reported "I don't know any more about it than what I read in the newspapers." San Francisco fireworks and stories of landings On July 3, press nationwide reported a story from California Highway Patrol Sergeant David Menary who told of seeing six large metallic discs dive into the San Francisco Bay at high speed the prior day.http://www.newspapers.com/image/458782396/ 3 Jul 1947, 6 - The San Francisco Examiner Newspapers.com Menary had been accompanied by Walter Castro, a garage owner. On July 3, US Army major Steve Monroe of the Presidio issued a report explaining that Menary's sighting had been caused by 'some of the boys' experimenting with fireworks. Monroe announced further such experiments would be cancelled. On July 3, press announced a "mystery missile" had been seen in Altadena, California and was believed to have landed nearby; the witness stated that object "was NOT a 'flying disc'".http://www.newspapers.com/image/628345830/ 3 Jul 1947, 11 - Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News Newspapers.com That same day, press reported on a potential landing in San Miguel.http://www.newspapers.com/image/17214918/ 3 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Gallup Independent Newspapers.com July 4 press reports By July 4, reports had spread to 11 states and two Canadian provinces, with new sightings reported in Delaware.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291780/ 4 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News Newspapers.com Headlines declared the recent investigation had finished: "Army Air Forces Drops Inquiry Into Mysterious 'Flying Discs'; Maybe They're Just Imaginary". An Army Air Force spokesman explained that the inquiry "has not produced enough fact to warrant further investigation".http://www.newspapers.com/image/664344070/ 4 Jul 1947, 1 - The Bangor Daily News Newspapers.com Also on July 4, the United Press quoted Meade Layne, a publisher of an occult magazine, who speculated that the discs were "etheric".http://www.newspapers.com/image/809588970/ 4 Jul 1947, 1 - The Tribune Newspapers.com Alternatively, the San Francisco Chronicle published a letter from local eccentric Ole J. Sneide who claimed that the discs were "oblate spheroid space ships" who "have been absent from our planet since before the fall of the Roman Empire, when the Great Master left earth for the outer galaxy by fohatic teleportation." Frank Ryman photograph That same day, it was reported that Frank Ryman, a Coast Guard yeoman in Seattle, had photographed a disc.http://www.newspapers.com/image/745115299/ 4 Jul 1947, 9 - The Columbia Record Newspapers.comhttp://www.newspapers.com/image/213019753/ 5 Jul 1947, Page 4 - The Town Talk Newspapers.com Also on July 4, it was reported that eight military men were hospitalized with burns after an acid accident at White Sands under Lt. Col. Harold B. Turner.http://www.newspapers.com/image/2859461/ 4 Jul 1947, Page 2 - Clovis News-Journal Newspapers.com Flight 105 Flight 105 UFO sighting USA West 150 right Flight 105 departed Boise bound for Pendleton. USA West N 43 36 57 BSicon_AIRCLUB_fliph.svg 16 W 116 12 6 Boise 100 right On the evening of July 4, United Airlines Flight 105 took off from Boise, Idaho in a DC-3 bound for Pendleton, Oregon.https://books.google.com/books?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth Curtis Peebles March 21, 1995 Berkley Books 9780425151174 Google Bookshttp://www.newspapers.com/image/569377870/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - The Spokesman-Review Newspapers.com In a sign of the times, on departure Boise tower jokingly suggested the crew "be on the lookout for 'flying saucers'".http://www.newspapers.com/image/428762908/ 5 Jul 1947, 3 - The Columbus Telegram Newspapers.com During the flight, the crew reportedly observed "four or five 'somethings'", described as "smooth on the bottom and rough appearing on top", but they could not say whether they were "oval or saucer-like". One object was reportedly larger than the rest. The crew later witnessed what they interpreted as four additional objects.http://www.newspapers.com/image/350610291/ 5 Jul 1947, 1 - Rapid City Journal Newspapers.com Group sightings The Flight 105 sighting was widely publicized on July 5. Also on July 5, papers reported a group of 60 picnickers in Twin Falls Park had witnessed 35 discs over a twenty-minute period the prior day.http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487814/ 5 Jul 1947, 1 - The Idaho Statesman Newspapers.com Police in Portland received reports of discs, some reports coming from members of local law enforcement in Portland and Vancouver; the International News Service reported that "hundreds of persons" viewed the strange objects, up to 20 in number. At Hayden Lake, Idaho, a group of 200 people were said to witness a disc for thirty minutes.http://www.newspapers.com/image/569193624/ 5 Jul 1947, 1 - The Rock Island Argus Newspapers.com Six people in Boise reported seeing discs the previous day.http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487819/ 5 Jul 1947, 2 - The Idaho Statesman Newspapers.com On July 5, it was reported that a balloon and a six-pointed, star-shaped tinfoil object was recovered in Pickaway County, Ohio by farmer Sherman Campbell; the press speculated the object may have been responsible for recent local 'flying saucer' reports.Article clipped from the Circleville Herald The Circleville Herald 8 July 1947 1 https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-circleville-herald/16239534/ Also on July 5, press reported on the disappearance of an Army C-54 transport plane. The plane went missing after departing Bermuda bound for West Palm Beach with six men aboard.http://www.newspapers.com/image/80175383/ 5 Jul 1947, Page 2 - Statesman Journal Newspapers.com Years later, the disappearance and flying discs would be incorporated into the Bermuda Triangle folklore. Wire service reports quoted astronomer Oliver J. Lee of the Dearborn Observatory as suggesting the discs were "probably man-made and radio controlled". Human behavioral expert John. G. Lynn blamed the "wave of saucer hysteria" on "recent predictions that an atomic war would break out, laying waste the United States". A Louisiana paper quoted physicist Norris Sill, a member of the Navy staff at the Bikini tests, as discounting the suggestion that nuclear fission was causing the sightings, saying there was "no plausible connection between the two".http://www.newspapers.com/image/213019734/ 5 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Town Talk Newspapers.com Atomic link claimed UFO reports and atomic sites During the 1947 craze, flying discs and atomic weaponry became linked in the public consciousness.G. Arnold, Ch. 12 On July 6, headlines proclaimed "Discs Atom Products, A-Bomb Scientist Says". Articles cited an unnamed "noted scientist in nuclear physics" affiliated with CalTech who had been part of the Manhattan Project. The scientist declared "People are not 'seeing things'" and 'said flatly that experiments in "transmutation of atomic energy" being conducted at Muroc Lake Calif; White Sands, N.M.; Portland Ore., and elsewhere are responsible for the "flying discs".Atomic Saucers Scrantonian Tribune 6 July 1947 4 https://www.newspapers.com/article/scrantonian-tribune-atomic-saucers/97925821/ Papers observed that the "Bulk of the flying disc reports have generated in a wide circle through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon surrounding the Hanford works".http://www.newspapers.com/image/182928820/ 6 Jul 1947, Page 17 - Star Tribune Newspapers.com Col. F. J. Clarke, commander of Hanford, denied knowledge of any connection. Harold Urey, atomic scientist in Chicago, dismissed the report as "gibberish", as did Atomic Energy Commission chair David E. Lilienthal. The Associated Press reported that fighters had been placed on alert at Muroc Army Airfield and Portland, Oregon—two hotspots of reports in the prior weeks.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291869/ 6 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News Newspapers.com By July 6, reports had spread to 31 states. Louis E. Starr, the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, called for more information about the discs, declaring that "Too little is being told to the people of this country". In Acampo, California, reports of an airborne light and sounds "like a four-motored bomber with props feathered for takeoff" were speculated to be linked to a local power outage.https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oregonian-disc-blitz-feared-as-light/204073603/ Disc Blitz Feared As Lights Go Out July 7, 1947 1 newspapers.com Reports peak By July 7, the Los Angeles Times proclaimed: "Flying 'Whatsits' Supplant Weather as No. 1 Topic Anywhere People Meet".Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1947'UFO' Review: Outer Space, the Inside Story https://manhattan.institute/article/ufo-review-outer-space-the-inside-story 2024-08-19 Manhattan Institute enLast Week Tonight, April 21, 2024 That day, newspapers announced that reports "poured in" from the San Francisco Bay. Berkeley professor Raymond Thayer Birge reassured the public that the discs "aren't coming from outer space". Army pilots began flying "camera patrols" as 11 planes were equipped with telescopic cameras in the hopes of capturing images of a flying disc.http://www.newspapers.com/image/292796768/ 7 Jul 1947, 1 - News-Journal Newspapers.com Also on July 7, press reported the account of Vernon Baird, who claimed to have seen a 'Flying Yo-Yo' over Montana.http://www.newspapers.com/image/428764300/ 7 Jul 1947, 1 - The Columbus Telegram Newspapers.com Baird, a civilian pilot working work for a mapping firm, reported the object "came apart like a clamshell. The two pieces spiraled down somewhere in the Madison Range". Baird described seeing similar objects darting around "like a batch of molecules doing the rumba." Later that day, it was reported that Baird had admitted the entire story was false.http://www.newspapers.com/image/624925011/ 7 Jul 1947, 1 - Ventura County Star Newspapers.com One recovered disc was revealed to be a circular saw blade with tubes and wires attached, while a second disc turned out to be locomotive packing washers.http://www.newspapers.com/image/798426337/ 7 Jul 1947, 2 - The Memphis Press-Scimitar Newspapers.com Retired general Hap Arnold (no relation) publicly speculated the discs had either been developed by United States scientists or were foreign technology that "operating out of control". The Los Angeles Examiner received and publicized a letter claiming the discs were atomic-powered Russian planes. Winfred Overholser, a nationally renowned psychiatrist, described the reports as a "national hysteria".http://www.newspapers.com/image/616084762/ 7 Jul 1947, 6 - The Times Dispatch Newspapers.com In contrast, Harry A. Steckel, psychiatric consultant to the Veterans Administration, dismissed the "mass hysteria" explanation, adding that the disc might be the result of "experiments by unknown government agencies". On July 7, it was reported than an Army weather kite was found on a farm near Granville, Ohio.http://www.newspapers.com/image/287371827/ 7 Jul 1947, 1 - The Newark Advocate Newspapers.com Truman returned to Washington after a weekend in Charlottesville, driving himself most of the way, with police escort.http://www.newspapers.com/image/761535159/ 7 Jul 1947, 1 - Abilene Reporter-News Newspapers.com Also on July 7, it was reported that the FBI was investigating a letter received by the Los Angeles Examiner which claimed the discs were atomic-powered Russian craft. The Examiner turned the letter over to authorities after a recommendation by a "top-flight atomic scientist" who appraised the letter as "not all nonsense".https://www.newspapers.com/image/458810880/ The San Francisco Examiner 07 Jul 1947, page 2 https://www.newspapers.com/image/594876423/ Deseret News 07 Jul 1947, page 1 Weather balloons, pranks, and hoaxes Hoaxed discs Harston with a hoaxed disc from Shreveporthttps://www.newspapers.com/clip/18838873/the-times/ Clipped From The Times The Times July 8, 1947 1 newspapers.com Rev. Joseph Brasky of Grafton, Wisconsin poses with hoax disc Kemper disc of York, PAhttps://www.newspapers.com/clip/18841058/the-gazette-and-daily/ Clipped From The Gazette and Daily The Gazette and Daily July 12, 1947 4 newspapers.com Morfitt disc of Victoria, B.C.http://www.newspapers.com/image/506005135/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - Times Colonist Newspapers.com On July 8, United Press reported that Soviet Vice Counsel Eugene Tunantzev denied responsibility for the discs, saying that "Russia respects the sovereignty of all governments and by no stretch of the imagination would use another country for a proving ground." American officials agreed, dismissing speculation that the discs might be 'secret weapons of use in bacteriological warfare'.http://www.newspapers.com/image/334399780/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - The Journal Times Newspapers.com $1,000 rewards were offered in three different parts of the country: in Los Angeles, the "World Inventors' Exposition" announced a $1,000 reward for a 'flying disc' by the end of the week.http://www.newspapers.com/image/249335572/ 8 Jul 1947, Page 1 - Muncie Evening Press Newspapers.com Similar rewards were offered by entrepreneur E.J. Culligan of Northbrook Illinois and the Spokane Athletic Round Table, described as a 'group of gagsters'.http://www.newspapers.com/image/550962474/ 8 Jul 1947, 4 - The Gazette Newspapers.com On July 8, papers ran comments by White House press secretary Charles G. Ross who jokingly shared a telegram from a professional juggler who reported the "saucers" were things used in his act that "got out of hand".http://www.newspapers.com/image/347821422/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - Casper Star-Tribune Newspapers.com Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Hal Boyle authored a satirical report from inside a flying saucer. On July 8, it was reported that Norman Hargrave reported finding an object containing the inscription "Military secret of the United States of America".http://www.newspapers.com/image/6159572/ 8 Jul 1947, Page 1 - Lubbock Morning Avalanche Newspapers.com Another unsubstantiated story was circulated of a disc being recovered on the Texas Gulf coast. Flying disc reports spread to Sydney, Australia, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Copenhagen, Denmark.http://www.newspapers.com/image/325468177/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - Nanaimo Daily News Newspapers.comhttp://www.newspapers.com/image/683746787/ 8 Jul 1947, 3 - Los Angeles Evening Citizen News Newspapers.com Sightings were reported in Saanich, B.C. In Victoria, B.C., a palm-sized disc was photographed and turned over to police by Arthur Morfitt, who said the disc landed near him. By July 8, reports had spread to 41 states.http://www.newspapers.com/image/205470618/ 8 Jul 1947, Page 3 - Oakland Tribune Newspapers.com Science-fiction author and Fortean R. DeWitt Miller compared the current craze to 19th-century folklore, speculating the discs were either a new weapon, interplanetary, or else "things out of other dimensions of time and space".http://www.newspapers.com/image/101172712/ 8 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Bend Bulletin Newspapers.com Newspaper and radio firebrand Walter Winchell cited DeWitt's book "Forgotten Mysteries", highlighting three 19th-century reports that Winchell alleged were similar to the ongoing disc craze.http://www.newspapers.com/image/325779550/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - The Tampa Times Newspapers.com Tobacco salesman Lloyd Bennet, of Oelwein, Iowa, claimed to have found a 6.5-inch diameter disc in his front yard. Frances Adams of Austin similarly recovered a disc which was photographed and publicized.http://www.newspapers.com/image/359898241/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - Austin American-Statesman Newspapers.com F.G. 'Happy' Harston, a Shreveport auto salesman, recovered a 16-inch aluminum disc thrown by pranksters.http://www.newspapers.com/image/210767436/ 8 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Times Newspapers.com Thomas W. Wilson, also of Shreveport, chased a "disc" which was revealed to be a balloon. John Caldwell, of Austin TX, reported seeing a disc and also shared having seen a mysterious aircraft 57 years prior; Caldwell dismissed both as illusions. On July 8, celebrity Orson Welles publicly denied any connection to the flying discs, saying "I scared the shirts off Americans once. That was enough."http://www.newspapers.com/image/391653138/ 8 Jul 1947, 3 - The Journal Herald Newspapers.com Media reported on rumors that a disc had crashed near Lancaster, CA, setting fifteen or 20 tree afire; ranch owner Fritz Godde denied the reports. Albert Weaver photographhttps://www.newspapers.com/clip/16245710/the-journal-times/ Clipped From The Journal Times The Journal Times July 9, 1947 7 newspapers.com Media compared the ongoing craze to the unexplained fireballs reported in May and June 1945 over Japan, beginning with the May 23 night raid of Tokyo.http://www.newspapers.com/image/402580806/ 8 Jul 1947, 5 - Wisconsin State Journal Newspapers.com July 8 saw the first publication of a flying disc photograph, captured by Albert Weaver of Michigan.http://www.newspapers.com/image/501000238/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - The Windsor Star Newspapers.com Also on July 8, press ran a photo of three prominent disc observers, Kenneth Arnold, E.J. Smith, and Ralph Stephens, who had gathered to "compare notes on the 'flying discs'"http://www.newspapers.com/image/628198085/ 8 Jul 1947, 1 - Lodi News-Sentinel Newspapers.com Roswell debris Roswell incident thumb|At Fort Worth Army Air Field, Major Jesse A. Marcel posing with debris on July 8, 1947 On July 8, 1947, RAAF public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disc", which had landed on a ranch near Roswell. The following day, the "disc" was revealed to be pieces of a weather balloon. On July 9, Roswell Daily Record reported that the debris consisted of "large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks."http://ufologie.net/rw/p/roswelldailyrecord9jul1947.htm Harassed Rancher who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told About it Roswell Daily Record July 9, 1947 February 5, 2013 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090109043134/http://ufologie.net/rw/p/roswelldailyrecord9jul1947.htm January 9, 2009 Reports diminish Rhodes UFO photographs Rhodes flying disc photographs On July 9, the Oakland Tribune announced that reports had dropped off and "it appeared the show is over".http://www.newspapers.com/image/205471452/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 3 - Oakland Tribune Newspapers.com Press reported that the Army and Navy had begun a campaign to halt the flying disc tales.http://www.newspapers.com/image/303514720/ 9 Jul 1947, 1 - The Daily Times Newspapers.com Also on July 9, media reported that a triangular object found near Oxford Ohio by John Strucks was also a radar target used on weather balloons.http://www.newspapers.com/image/249279881/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 1 - Palladium-Item Newspapers.com Dozens of "flying discs" in Richmond, Virginia were revealed to be paper plates released by jokesters from a tall building.http://www.newspapers.com/image/560787757/ 9 Jul 1947, 1 - St. Joseph Gazette Newspapers.com On July 9, airplane inventor Orville Wright argued the disc reports are "more propaganda for war, to stir up the people and excite them to believe a foreign power has designs on this nation".http://www.newspapers.com/image/56081240/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Courier-Gazette Newspapers.com On July 9, Missouri press reported that a contraption made from pie pans, wires, and radio tubes was found burning on the Clayton County courthouse lawn.http://www.newspapers.com/image/573455827/ 9 Jul 1947, 1 - St. Louis Globe-Democrat Newspapers.com thumb|right|The Rhodes flying disc photos of Phoenix were published by the Arizona Republic on July 9. Al Hixenbaugh of the Louisville Times photographed two objects streaking across the sky.http://www.newspapers.com/image/476855227/ 9 Jul 1947, 1 - The Oshkosh Northwestern Newspapers.com William A. Rhodes photographed an object over the skies of Phoenix.http://www.newspapers.com/image/117325958/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 1 - Arizona Republic Newspapers.com Disc reports from Iran were published in US media.http://www.newspapers.com/image/140787133/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Plain Speaker Newspapers.com On July 9, with the announcement of new disc reports from Kansas, reports had come from all 48 states.http://www.newspapers.com/image/445659156/ 9 Jul 1947, 445 - Daily News Newspapers.com That same day, press ran headlines reporting: "Army, Navy try to stop rumors of 'Flying Discs'".http://www.newspapers.com/image/13590060/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 17 - The Kokomo Tribune Newspapers.com Hoaxed discs recovered in Hollywood and Detroit thumb|North Hollywood hoaxed flying disc On July 10, it was reported that Russell Long of North Hollywood had discovered a 30-inch diameter disc which allegedly struck his house and came to rest in his flower garden. The disc, still smoking, prompted a call to the fire department; firemen reported an "acrid, chemical smell". The device was described as having exhaust pipes, a fin and rudder.http://www.newspapers.com/image/265266336/ 10 Jul 1947, 3 - The Press Democrat Newspapers.com The local fire battalion chief told press that "It looks like someone went to a great deal of trouble for a joke."http://www.newspapers.com/image/10339753/ 10 Jul 1947, Page 10 - The Chronicle-Telegram Newspapers.com The disc featured a glass radio tube.http://www.newspapers.com/image/681669028/ 10 Jul 1947, 2 - The Lexington Herald Newspapers.com Local FBI chief Richard B. Hood reported that the FBI took possession of the disc and would turn it over to the military.http://www.newspapers.com/image/742779524/ 10 Jul 1947, 1 - Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise Newspapers.com In Detroit, Emmett C. Daniels discovered a disc with "red painted hieroglyphics apparently of oriental origin". Local workers took credit for creating the disc.http://www.newspapers.com/image/97795926/ 10 Jul 1947, Page 7 - Detroit Free Press Newspapers.com Balloons The Navy announced it had conducted a test, releasing a helium balloon carrying a tin-foil screen over Stone Mountain, Georgia. As anticipated, local newspapers received disc reports.http://www.newspapers.com/image/5066310/ 10 Jul 1947, Page 16 - The Sandusky Register Newspapers.com Leroy Leach of Dover, Ohio reported discovering a balloon with foil on his farm.http://www.newspapers.com/image/324939471/ 10 Jul 1947, 1 - The Union County Journal Newspapers.com On July 10, a local army recruiter was photographed with a shattered kite and balloon that had been recovered from Bakersfield.http://www.newspapers.com/image/3624437/ 10 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Bakersfield Californian Newspapers.com In Lima, Ohio, a cardboard disc attached to a balloon was recovered by Julian Faccenda, workers at a local factory took credit for the device. Original disc witness Kenneth Arnold flatly denied that the objects he saw could have been balloons.http://www.newspapers.com/image/174586/ 10 Jul 1947, Page 8 - The Tipton Daily Tribune Newspapers.com The Wisconsin Civil Air Patrol announced it had ceased its aerial search for discs.http://www.newspapers.com/image/334400206/ 10 Jul 1947, 3 - The Journal Times Newspapers.com In Barstow, California, one columnist observed that reporting on discs might jeopardize national security: "If these 'flying discs' are enemy experimental dummy bombs or rockets, we have given the enemy valuable information. We have published the exact location, time, etc. This would make excellent data for enemy agents."http://www.newspapers.com/image/747987583/ 10 Jul 1947, 7 - Desert Dispatch Newspapers.com Walter Winchell speculated that, despite official denials, the disc reports likely stemmed from secret Navy flying wing aircraft.http://www.newspapers.com/image/325781270/ 10 Jul 1947, 1 - The Tampa Times Newspapers.com Twin Falls recovered disc hoax Twin Falls saucer hoax thumb|175px|right|Hoaxed saucer from Twin Falls On July 11, press reported the recovery of a 30-inch disc from the yard of a Twin Falls home. Residents reported hearing a "thud" around 2:30a.m., but dismissed the noise as a truck.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566292718/ 11 Jul 1947, 2 - The Times-News Newspapers.com At 8:20a.m., a next-door neighbor reportedly discovered a "disc" and summoned police.https://books.google.com/books?id=8d1EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 Crash: When UFOs Fall From the Sky: A History of Famous Incidents, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups Kevin D. Randle May 20, 2010 Red Wheel/Weiser 9781601637369 Google Books Local police arrived and took possession of the object. The matter was referred to both FBI and military intelligence. Multiple officers from Fort Douglas flew in to investigate.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566292842/ 13 Jul 1947, 2 - The Times-News Newspapers.comTwo lieutenant colonels, two first lieutenants, and a civilian. Authorities "clamped down a lid of secrecy pending the outcome of further investigation".http://www.newspapers.com/image/566292702/ 11 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News Newspapers.com Local press featured a piece on Army "cloak and dagger" during the disc investigation, mentioning that photographs of the object were confiscated.http://www.newspapers.com/image/566293198/ 15 Jul 1947, 4 - The Times-News Newspapers.com On July 11, the FBI reported the apparently-mundane object had been turned over to the Army.http://www.newspapers.com/image/393708035/ 11 Jul 1947, 1 - The Independent-Record Newspapers.com On July 12, it was reported nationally that the Twin Falls disc was a hoax. Photos of the object were publicly released. The object was described as containing radio tubes, electric coils, and wires underneath a Plexiglas dome. Press reported that four teenagers had confessed to creating the disc.http://www.newspapers.com/image/594877292/ 12 Jul 1947, 9 - Deseret News Newspapers.com The Twin Falls hoax, with its nationally published image showing a bemused army officer holding a disc-like object of mundane construction, has been called the "Coup de Grace of press coverage" on the Summer 1947 Flying Disc wave; in the days following the story, "press accounts rapidly fell off".https://books.google.com/books?id=81xoS94LSncC&pg=PA39 UFO Headquarters: Investigations On Current Extraterrestrial Activity In Area 51 Susan Wright August 15, 1998 St. Martin's Publishing Group 9780312207816 Google Books Reports subside Bloecher writes: "With scarcely more than a dozen sightings for July 10th, the UFO wave of 1947 had almost completely subsided. Few if any of the reports were carried by the wire services".Bloecher, 1967 Bloecher adds: "While interest was high at the time of the sightings, it died out not long after". Another scholar commented on the brevity of the craze, writing: "The first newspaper accounts preceded a sweep of confirmative storiessome creditable, some doubtful, some proven hoaxes, and innumerable explanationsthat caught the nation's attention in a matter of days, and the world inside of three weeks...Yet a hypothetical person not in contact with a medium of communication during the incident, and returning to read an American newspaper after July 20, 1947, would know nothing of the episode which, shortly before, held the world in its grip. The episode was that short, that concentrated, that volatile."Wennergren Emil Ear 1948 The "Flying Saucers" Episode University of Iowa https://iro.uiowa.edu/discovery/delivery/01IOWA_INST:ResearchRepository/12730522520002771#13730804330002771 In 1948, the press published a new spate of disc reports and revitalized interest in discs. Crash at Kelso Maury Island incident Washington Maury Island N 47 22 48 W 122 25 12 right 250 right Location of Maury Island, Washington On August 1, it was publicly reported that a B-25 departing McChord Field bound for Hamilton Field had crashed near Kelso, Washington, killing both pilot and co-pilot; two other men bailed out, though one was critically injured in the parachute jump.http://www.newspapers.com/image/564353540/ 1 Aug 1947, 1 - Spokane Chronicle Newspapers.comPeebles, Ch.2G. Arnold, Ch. 11https://books.google.com/books?id=IINjCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA108 Washington Myths and Legends: The True Stories behind History's Mysteries Lynn Bragg September 1, 2015 Rowman & Littlefield 9781493016044 Google Books The following day, press accounts revealed that a "mysterious telephone informant with uncannily accurate information" had contacted the United Press of Tacoma. The caller claimed that the crashed B-25 had been loaded with flying disc fragments; the caller further claimed that flying saucer witnesses Kenneth Arnold and E.J. Smith had been "in secret conference" at Tacoma's Hotel Winthrop.http://www.newspapers.com/image/485766482/ 2 Aug 1947, 3 - The World Newspapers.com General Ned Schramm of the fourth air force publicly acknowledged that the deceased pilots were intelligence officers who had traveled to Tacoma to meet with original saucer witness Kenneth Arnold, but Schramm told denied knowledge of any debris onboard the plane, telling press that "it was his understanding" that the pilots "were not bringing anything back with them".http://www.newspapers.com/image/75097503/ 3 Aug 1947, Page 1 - Nevada State Journal Newspapers.com By August 3, press reported a detailed narrative about the events: original saucer witness Kenneth Arnold had travelled to Tacoma to investigate claims by Fred Crisman and Harold Dahl, who reported recovering debris dropped by a flying saucer at Maury Island. Flight 105 pilot E.J. Smith joined the investigation, which received "lava rocks" from Crisman who claimed they were "flying disc debris". Army Air Force investigators were contacted, and two investigators flew to Tacoma where they took possession of the debris and departed in their B-25 to return to Hamilton Field.http://www.newspapers.com/image/723484175/ 3 Aug 1947, 1 - The Idaho Statesman Newspapers.com Public awareness On August 19, Gallup published a poll reporting that 90% of the public had heard about flying discs.https://books.google.com/books?id=W0VYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA260 Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century Alexander C. T. Geppert April 25, 2018 Springer 9781349953394 Google Books Reports noted this poll "places the saucers on par with Orson Welles' 'Invasion from Mars', the Loch Ness Monster, and Tom Thumb Golf." By comparison, only half the public had heard of the Marshall Plan. The survey showed that 29% of the public believed the discs were illusions or imaginary, 33% did not know what the discs were, and 9% offered other interpretations, including linking the discs to atomic weapons or the end of the world. Maps and table of reports Table of reports during the 1947 flying disc craze Maps of the 1947 flying disc craze center 549 338 slideshow File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jun-25.png June 25 - Kenneth Arnold sighting near Mount Rainier File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jun-26.png June 26 - Reports from Oregon, Missouri, and Oklahoma File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jun-27.png June 27 - Reports continue in Washington, Oregon, and Oklahoma File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jun-28.png June 28 - Reports spread throughout the West. Idaho, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and Illinois see their first reports. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jun-29.png June 29 - Washington, Oregon, and Texas experience further reports, while British Columbia and Arizona see their first reports. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jun-30.png June 30 - Continuing reports from British Columbia, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, and Texas. Reports spread to California, Virginia, and Ontario. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-1.png July 1 - Continued reports in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas. First report from South Carolina. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-2.png July 2 - Ongoing reports in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. First report from Kentucky. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-3.png July 3 - More reports from Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Reports spread to Kansas, Arkansas, and Prince Edward Island. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-4.png July 4 - Widespread sightings amid first reports from Delaware File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-5.png July 5 - File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-6.png July 6 - File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-7.png July 7 - File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-8.png July 8 - Reports spread throughout the United States. File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-9.png July 9 - Reports reach all states File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-10.png July 10 File:Flying-Disc-Craze-of-1947--nocaption--Jul-11.png July 11 - Reports have largely subsided. Contemporary interpretations Technological thumb|right|The US Navy had experimented with disc-shaped aircraft during World War II. Members of the public speculated the craft were responsible for disc reports, though Navy officials later debunked the theory. Initial speculation held that the disc might be technology developed by the Americans or the Soviets.Examples of Russian speculation: https://www.newspapers.com/article/albany-democrat-herald-furor-over-myster/163230125/ Some theorized they were experimental equipment of another nation, probably Russia. Albany Democrat-Herald Albany, Oregon June 27, 1947 1, 6 Furor Over Mystery Missiles Increases https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-bernardino-county-sun/108957921/ The San Bernardino County Sun San Bernardino, California July 6, 1947 Wild 'War with Russia' Sweeps Honolulu 1 https://www.newspapers.com/article/deseret-news-atom-flying-saucers/140160275/ FBI Probes 'Deadly Russ Clouds' Report Deseret News Salt Lake City, Utah July 7, 1947 1 Army rocket expert Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner publicly speculated the "discs" were jet airplanes, arguing that "the jet planes' circular exhaust glows brightly when heated and might easily appear to be discs at a distance. By June 29, public speculation suggested that the reports might be attributed to "Flying Flapjack", an experimental Navy fighter aircraft with a somewhat disc-shaped body that had been profiled in the May 1947 issue of Mechanix Illustrated.http://www.newspapers.com/image/768897089/ 29 Jun 1947, 1 - The Bellingham Herald Newspapers.com The Navy dismissed that suggestion, noting that only one such prototype existed, and it had never flown outside of Connecticut.http://www.newspapers.com/image/536439114/ 2 Jul 1947, 1 - The Daily Advertiser Newspapers.com On July 3, Army Lt. Gen Nathan Twining, head of Air Material Command and commander of Wright Field, announced an investigation into the discs and informed the public that the Army Air Forces "have nothing that would compare to the descriptions of the object" http://www.newspapers.com/image/564362275/ 3 Jul 1947, 11 - Spokane Chronicle Newspapers.com On July 6, the International News Services interviewed racecar builder Leo Bentz who speculated the discs were the work of an inventor named George De Bay.http://www.newspapers.com/image/524008121/ 6 Jul 1947, 3 - Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph Newspapers.com On July 9, the El Paso Times published an editorial calling on the Army to admit the discs were new US technology.http://www.newspapers.com/image/429447097/ 9 Jul 1947, 4 - El Paso Times Newspapers.com Others suggested the discs were Russian weapons, akin to the incendiary balloons released by the Japanese to cross the Pacific and explode in the US.http://www.newspapers.com/image/2393039/ 22 Dec 1947, Page 32 - The Kokomo Tribune Newspapers.com The Los Angeles Examiner received and publicized a letter claiming the discs were atomic-powered Russian planes. thumb|right|Balloons, radar reflectors, tinfoil, insulation, and numerous other objects were thought to contribute to the reports. Retired general Hap Arnold (no relation) publicly speculated the discs had either been developed by United States scientists or were foreign technology "operating out of control". Conventional Army rocket expert Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner revised his estimate on June 29 and suggested that meteors, not jets, were responsible. One ironworks operator speculated that the " flying discs" were caused by the melting of bottlecaps". Oklahoma sightings were revealed as handbills released from an airplane. Numerous recovered objects were revealed to hoaxes, pranks, or mistaken identifications. On July 4, press nationwide quoted an unnamed Chicago scientist who speculated that people were seeing "spots in front of their eyes."http://www.newspapers.com/image/616084642/ 4 Jul 1947, 4 - The Times Dispatch Newspapers.com In the prior decades, reports of canals on Mars had been revealed to stem from optical illusions.https://books.google.com/books?id=CmFVEAAAQBAJ Flying Saucers Over America: The UFO Craze of 1947 Gordon Arnold December 3, 2021 McFarland 9781476687667 Google Books Behavioral Mass psychogenic illness Psychosocial hypothesis thumb|right| Dancing plagues of the Middle Ages are thought to have been caused by mass hysteria. During the 1947 craze, experts in human behavior argued the reports were best explained as a psychological or social phenomenon. The flying disc craze was compared to Scotland's Loch Ness monster, the panic caused by the Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds, and a sea monster panic caused by a US Armed Forces Radio hoax in Japan.https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2000/05/22164854/p20.pdf Mass Delusions and Hysterias : Highlights from the Past Millennium Over the past millennium, mass delusions and hysterical outbreaks have taken many forms. Sociologists Robert Bartholomew and Erich Goode survey some of the more colorful cases. Robert E. Bartholomew and Erich Goode Cdn.centerforinquiry.org June 24, 2022 On July 3, the International News Service suggested a sociological component, arguing that Arnold had "broken the ice" and induced "trained observers to tell stories they had hesitated to relate before in the fear nobody would believe them".http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487772/ 4 Jul 1947, 2 - The Idaho Statesman Newspapers.com As early as July 5, press featured speculation that the disc craze was the result of mass hysteria. On July 9, psychiatrist Edward Strecker described discs as the result of "pathological receptiveness". Strecker argued that initial witnesses "may have seen something, such as the glint of an airplane" while subsequent sightings were likely illusions brought on by hysteria. Strecker argued that 'the emotional state of many person had been over-active since the first atomic bomb exploded'.http://www.newspapers.com/image/773565938/ 9 Jul 1947, 18 - The Seattle Star Newspapers.com Winfred Overholser, nationally renown psychiatrist, described the reports as a "national hysteria". On July 9, it was reported that an Indianapolis woman was sent to a mental ward after she was discovered "hacking holes in the sidewalk with a hatchet" in an effort to 'drive the saucers away'.http://www.newspapers.com/image/540797971/ 9 Jul 1947, 5 - The Herald Newspapers.com The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph ran a headline telling readers "If you're seeing those saucers -- call the psychiatrist, and quick!" after a Harvard professor proclaimed that flying disc mystery was "not a problem for meteorologists or astronomers, but one for psychiatrists."http://www.newspapers.com/image/523992561/ 9 Jul 1947, 1 - Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph Newspapers.com Interplanetary Extraterrestrial hypothesis thumb|150px|right|Interplanetary invaders, as depicted on the August 1927 cover of Amazing Stories On June 27, unnamed experts argued that supersonic saucer-shaped aircraft would be "out of this planet".http://www.newspapers.com/image/143491805/ 27 Jun 1947, Page 1 - The Tennessean Newspapers.com On June 28, headlines joked "No, They're Not Men from Mars".http://www.newspapers.com/image/401278240/ 29 Jun 1947, 2 - Dayton Daily News Newspapers.com By June 29, one source reported that "These discs, some people suggest, may presage an invasion from Mars." On July 7, 1947, two stories came out where Arnold raised the topic of possible extraterrestrial origins, both as his opinion and those who had written to him.Associated Press story, July 7, 1947, e.g., Salt Lake City Deseret News, p. 3, "Author of 'Discs' Story To Seek Proof" Per the Chicago Times: "...Kenneth Luis Arnold...is not so certain that the strange contraptions are made on this planet. Arnold...said he hoped the devices were really the work of the U.S. Army. But he told the TIMES in a phone conversation: 'If our government knows anything about these devices, the people should be told at once. A lot of people out here are very much disturbed. Some think these things may be from another planet. But they aren't harming anyone and I think it would be the wrong thing to shoot one of them down—even if can be done. Their high speed would completely wreck them...' "Arnold, in pointing to the possibility of these discs being from another world, said, regardless of their origin, they apparently were traveling to some reachable destination. Whoever controlled them, he said, obviously wasn't trying to hurt anyone...He said discs were making turns so abruptly in rounding peaks that it would have been impossible for human pilots inside to have survived the pressure. So, he too thinks they are controlled from elsewhere, regardless of whether it's from Mars, Venus, or our own planet."http://www.roswellproof.com/Chicago_D_Times_1947-07-07-3s_Arnold_interplanetary_statement-Cpt_Smith.jpg Chicago 'Times' July 7, 1947 3 Roswellproof.com 24 June 2022 On July 9, US Senator from Idaho Glen H. Taylor said he 'almost hoped' that the discs would turn out to be space ships from another planet. Taylor explained that "'the mere possibility' that the spinning circles might be hostile would unify the peoples of earth as nothing else could."http://www.newspapers.com/image/334400011/ 9 Jul 1947, 7 - The Journal Times Newspapers.com In an Associated Press story from July 19, Arnold reiterated his belief that if they weren't Army, then they were extraterrestrial.Walla Walla (Wash) Union-Bulletin, July 20, 1947, "Man Who Reported 'Flying Saucers' Feels That He Has Been Vindicated" Biological Space animal hypothesis Another line of thought argued that the reports might be caused not by technological alien spacecraft or mass hysteria, but rather by animal lifeforms that are indigenous to Earth's atmosphere or interplanetary space. In 1923, paranormal author Charles Fort had mused "It seems no more incredible that up in the seemingly unoccupied sky there should be hosts of living things than that the seeming blank of the ocean should swarm with life".New Lands, 1923, ch 17"Who 'Discovered Space Animals'?", Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York Newsletter, (December 15, 1957) On July 7, 1947, a fan of Fort's writings named John Philip Bessor became the first modern proponent of the hypothesis when he authored a letter to the Air Force suggesting that discs might be "animals bearing very little likeness to human beings". In 1949, he wrote to the Saturday Evening Post to suggest that the discs might be "more like octopuses, in mentality, than humans".Saturday Evening Post, July 2, 1949 "He Believes in Saucers" In April 1949, the Air Force's Project Sign released an essay which considered the hypothesis, writing "the possible existence of some sort of strange extraterrestrial animals has been remotely considered, as many of the objects described acted more like animals than anything else". In October 1954, Alfred Loedding was publicly quoted on his suspicion that the disks "may be a kind of space animal".Times-Advertiser, Oct 10 1954 By 1955, original saucer witness Kenneth Arnold began to promote the theory, suggesting that the UFOs are "sort of like sky jellyfish." Arnold added: "My theory might sound funny, but just remember that there are a lot of things in nature that we don't know yet."https://www.newspapers.com/article/la-grande-observer-kenneth-arnolds-cryp/12450519/ Eerie Blue Light Said Live 'Thing' La Grande Observer January 29, 1955 1 newspapers.com Eschatological thumb|275px|right|"Death on a Pale Horse", an apocalyptic image from the Book of Revelation, as depicted by 18th-century artist John Hamilton Mortimer Some members of the public interpreted the reports as signifying the end of the world.https://books.google.com/books?id=5emvDwAAQBAJ Six Concepts for the End of the World Steve Beard October 8, 2019 MIT Press 9781912685332 Google Bookshttps://books.google.com/books?id=zgUTDAAAQBAJ The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism Catherine Wessinger July 19, 2016 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-061194-1 Google Books On June 27, Kenneth Arnold told press that he had been contacted by a preacher who insisted saucers were harbingers of Doomsday.http://www.newspapers.com/image/564374587/ 27 Jun 1947, 5 - Spokane Chronicle Newspapers.com On June 30, one Oregon preacher suggested that the discs were "the 'advance guard' of universal disaster, heralding the end of the world". On July 9, deputies in Everett, Idaho took a woman into custody who was marching around a lake, Bible in hand, speaking only of discs and the end of the world. The woman had never been known to be irrational, a deputy told press.http://www.newspapers.com/image/79808250/ 9 Jul 1947, Page 9 - The Post-Register Newspapers.com In Oshkosh, a housewife directed press to the Book of Job, explaining "when man becomes too vain and smart, some divine being will send things of various sizes and shapes through the air to confound and confuse man". On July 5, press reported on a 67-year-old gardener who claimed to have watched saucers for about 30 minutes before going to bed, saying: "I thought about waking up some of my neighbors but decided if it meant the end of the world they would be just about as happy sleeping when the world ended."http://www.newspapers.com/image/30943002/ 6 Jul 1947, Page 12 - The Sunday News and Tribune Newspapers.com In Louisiana, Governor Jimmie Davis relayed an explanation attributed to an 'elderly negro': "Saucers are part of the prophecy, something man is supposed to see and not understand. Next the world will know no seasons; Winter will come in the Summer; In Winter men will walk before they crawl; cotton will open before it blooms; the watermelon will come before the vine; in fact, I look for it to be kind of spooky from now on."http://www.newspapers.com/image/325780504/ 9 Jul 1947, 3 - The Tampa Times Newspapers.com Occult Interdimensional hypothesis thumb|200px|Theosophists Annie Besant, Henry Olcott (left) and Charles Leadbeater (right) popularized the mythical "etheric plane". As early as July 4, occultists like Meade Layne claimed that the discs were occult or "etheric".https://books.google.com/books?id=_r4nAAAAYAAJ UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture Gregory L. Reece August 15, 2007 Bloomsbury Academic 9781845114510 Google Books Layne claimed to be in telepathic communication with "people in the saucers", arguing "it is possible for objects to pass from an etheric to a dense level of matter and will then appear to materialize. They then will return to [...] etheric conditions".http://www.newspapers.com/image/788881393/ 5 Jul 1947, 1 - The Herald-Sun Newspapers.com Layne claimed that "These visitors are not excarnate humans but are human beings living in their own world. They come with good intent. They have some idea of experimenting with earth life."http://www.newspapers.com/image/788881408/ 5 Jul 1947, 2 - The Herald-Sun Newspapers.com The prior year, it had been reported that Layne consulted a medium who relayed communications from a "space ship named Careeta" that came to Earth from 'an unidentified planet'.http://www.newspapers.com/image/563072982/ 15 Oct 1946, 1 - Hanford Morning Journal Newspapers.com Esoteric Shaver Mystery thumb|Nearly a year before the flying disc craze, Amazing Stories featured disc-shaped spacecraft. During the mid-1940s, an obscure sub-culture developed around the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories and its tales of Richard Sharpe Shaver, claimed to be non-fictional.https://books.google.com/books?id=-mMtqtZMoNYC War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction Richard Toronto April 25, 2013 McFarland 9780786473076 Google Books Since 1945, the magazine had published Shaver's claims to be in communication with subterranean beings concerned about atomic pollution who piloted disc-shaped craft. In the October 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, editor Raymond Palmer argued the flying disc flap was proof of Richard Sharpe Shaver's claims. That same issue carried a letter from Shaver in which he argued the truth behind the discs would remain a secret.http://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v21n10_1947-10_cape1736 Amazing Stories v21n10 (1947 10) (cape1736) October 1947 Internet Archive Wrote Shaver: "The discs can be a space invasion, a secret new army plane — or a scouting trip by an enemy country...OR, they can be Shaver's space ships, taking off and landing regularly on earth for centuries past, and seen today as they have always been — as a mystery. They could be leaving earth with cargos of wonder-mech that to us would mean emancipation from a great many of our worst troubles— and we'll never see those cargos...I predict that nothing more will be seen, and the truth of what the strange disc ships really are will never be disclosed to the common people. We just don't count to the people who do know about such things. It isn't necessary to tell us anything." Aftermath Original saucer witness Kenneth Arnold went on to detail his purported sightings and subsequent disc investigations in a 1952 book co-authored with Amazing Stories editor Raymond Palmer.https://books.google.com/books?id=6E_VDwAAQBAJ Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO David J. Halperin March 24, 2020 Stanford University Press 9781503612129 Google Bookshttps://books.google.com/books?id=Fux7V5ROz-sC The Coming of the Saucers: A Documentary Report on Sky Objects that Have Mystified the World Kenneth Albert Arnold Ray Palmer May 19, 1952 Self-published Google Books Arnold was the Republican nominee in the 1962 Idaho lieutenant gubernatorial election;6 Jun 1962, 2 – The Times-News http://www.newspapers.com/image/408264435/ 2021-12-30 Newspapers.com en In 1977, he appeared at a convention curated by Fate Magazine to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the "birth of the modern UFO age".http://www.newspapers.com/image/156014786/ 4 May 1977, Page 4 - The News Journal Newspapers.com Occultist Meade Layne went on to found the pseudo-scientific "Borderland Sciences Research Associates". In 1961, he self-published The Flying Saucer Mystery and Its Solution, continuing to argue for his "Ether Ship" belief; Layne would come to be seen as an early proponent of the interdimensional hypothesis.https://books.google.com/books?id=_Rs_uAAACAAJ The Flying Saucer Mystery and Its Solution Meade Layne May 22, 1961 Borderland Sciences Research Foundation Google Books Reece Gregory L. UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture I. B. Tauris 2007 978-1845114510 Numerous other Saucer cults and UFO religions arose in the coming years. Richard Sharpe Shaver, who had made claims of an ancient underground advanced civilization since 1945, continued to promote his stories. During the last decades of his life, Shaver devoted himself to "rock books"—stones that he believed had been created by the advanced ancient races and embedded with legible pictures and texts. https://books.google.com/books?id=rmGyoQEACAAJ This Tragic Earth: The Art and World of Richard Sharpe Shaver Richard S. Shaver September 24, 2014 Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp Print Us 9780990868507 Google Books After Shaver's death in 1975, his editor Raymond Palmer admitted that "Shaver had spent eight years not in the Cavern World, but in a mental institution" being treated for paranoid schizophrenia. Ackerman World of Science Fiction 117 On September 23, 1947, Lieutenant General Twining issued a memo to Brigadier General George Schulgen of the Army Air Forces. The subject line of the memo read "AMC Opinion Concerning 'Flying Discs.Wojciechowski Eric March–April 2020 General Nathan F. Twining and the Flying Disc Problem of 1947 https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/03/general-nathan-f-twining-and-the-flying-disc-problem-of-1947/ Skeptical Inquirer 44 54–57'" The general tone of the memo was that unidentified objects seen in the skies by military personnel were not weather, astronomical or other phenomena but rather objects that warranted further investigation. Twining wrote "The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious." In 1948, General Nathan Twining, of Air Material Command, initiated Project Sign, an Air Force investigation into the reports. Twining went on to become Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in 1953.https://archive.org/download/afhra-k168.1501-3/AFHRA%20K168.1501-3.pdf Biography of General Nathan F. Twining 16, 19–20 May 11, 1956 Air Force Historical Research Agency October 26, 2021 He remained in that post until 1957 when he was appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by Eisenhower. In 1984, the hoaxed Majestic 12 documents included a memo attributed to Twining; Upon examination, the FBI declared the documents to be "completely bogus"—an assessment echoed by most Ufologists.Donovan Barna William Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious https://books.google.com/books?id=bJkhqU1IXHAC&pg=PA107 17 September 2014 2011-07-20 McFarland 978-0786486151 107– Flying saucer conspiracy theories UFO conspiracy theories In May 1949, journalist Donald Keyhoe of True magazine was tasked with investigating the reports. On December 26, True published Keyhoe's piece, titled "The Flying Saucers Are Real". Keyhoe claimed that elements within the Air Force knew that saucers existed and had concluded they were likely 'inter-planetary'.https://books.google.com/books?id=a_hPEAAAQBAJ Conspiracy and Triumph: Theories of a Victorious Future for the Faithful Aaron John Gulyas November 8, 2021 McFarland 9781476680767 Google Books December 23, 2021 December 23, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211223072307/https://books.google.com/books?id=a_hPEAAAQBAJ live The True article caused a sensation.https://books.google.com/books?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth Curtis Peebles December 25, 1995 Berkley Books 9780425151174 Google Books December 23, 2021 December 23, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211223074720/https://books.google.com/books/about/Watch_the_Skies.html?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC live The article was expanded into a book of the same name. In 1953, Keyhoe wrote that "Since July, 1952, in a new investigation of the saucers, I have been privileged to cooperate with the Air Force. Because of my present understanding of their very serious problem, and certain dangers inherent in the situation, I have been given information unknown to most Americans."Keyhoe (1953) Flying Saucers from Outer Space In 1955, Keyhoe authored a book that pointedly accused elements of United States government of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up knowledge of flying saucers.https://books.google.com/books?id=tD7bAAAAMAAJ 9781523928668 The Flying Saucer Conspiracy 1955 Keyhoe Donald Edward Keyhoe claims the existence of a "silence group" of orchestrating this conspiracy.Peebles, p. 111–113 Historian of folklore Curtis Peebles argues: "The Flying Saucer Conspiracy marked a shift in Keyhoe's belief system. No longer were flying saucers the central theme; that now belonged to the silence group and its coverup. For the next two decades Keyhoe's beliefs about this would dominate the flying saucer myth." Roswell conspiracy theory In February 1978, UFO researcher Stanton Friedman interviewed Jesse Marcel, who had traveled with Roswell debris from New Mexico to Fort Worth. Marcel's statements contradicted those he made to the press in 1947. In November 1979, Marcel's first filmed interview was featured in a documentary titled "UFO's Are Real", co-written by Friedman.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211707/ UFO's Are Real IMDb On September 20, 1980, Marcel appeared on the TV series In Search of... described his participation in the 1947 press conference: "They wanted some comments from me, but I wasn't at liberty to do that. So, all I could do is keep my mouth shut. And General Ramey is the one who discussed – told the newspapers, I mean the newsman, what it was, and to forget about it. It is nothing more than a weather observation balloon. Of course, we both knew differently."https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Primetime/story?id=528860&page=1 Aliens Changed Roswell, Even Without Proof ABC News Marcel gave a final interview to HBO's America Undercover which aired in August 1985.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6424000/ UFO's: What's Going On? September 10, 1985 IMDb Marcel consistently denied the presence of bodies.https://books.google.com/books?id=aUEYAQAAMAAJ The Skeptical Inquirer April 29, 1998 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Google Books By the 1990s, Roswell was home to a UFO museum and an annual UFO festival.https://www.newmexico.org/events/summer-events/roswell-ufo-festival/ Roswell UFO Festival Project Mogul and Skyhook Project Mogul#Roswell incident Skyhook balloons may have been the origin of some UFO observations. right|thumb|150 px|In 1995, the US Government released a report concluding that the Roswell Incident stemmed from a Project MOGUL balloon. In the 1990s, the US General Accounting Office launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the United States Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation about the 1947 UFO wave. The result was summarized in two reports. The first, released in 1994, concluded that the material recovered in 1947 was likely debris from Project Mogul, a military surveillance program employing high-altitude balloons (and classified portion of an unclassified New York University project by atmospheric researchersFrazier Kendrick Kendrick Frazier The Roswell Incident at 70: Facts, Not Myths Skeptical Inquirer 2017 41 6 12–15 https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswell_incident_at_70_facts_not_myths https://web.archive.org/web/20180720182643/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswell_incident_at_70_facts_not_myths dead 2018-07-20 20 July 2018 none). By the 1990s, a scholarly consensus emerged concluding that the military decided to conceal the true purpose of the crashed device—nuclear test monitoring—and instead inform the public that the crash was of a weather balloon.Olmsted 2009 184: Olmsted writes "When one of these balloons smashed into the sands of the New Mexico ranch, the military decided to hide the project's real purpose." The official Air Force report (Weaver & McAndrew 1995) had concluded (p. 9) "...the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device and most likely from one of the MOGUL balloons that had not been previously recovered." The balloon had been launched from Alamogordo Army Air Field a month earlier. It carried a radar reflector and classified Project Mogul sensors for experimental monitoring of Soviet nuclear testing.Frazier 2017. See also 1952 UFO flap Battle of Los Angeles Mad Gasser of Mattoon, a 1944 outbreak of hysteria in Mattoon, Illinois The mystery airship wave of 1896-7 List of reported UFO sightings Spring-heeled Jack, an 1838 outbreak of mass hysteria The War of the Worlds hysteria of 1938 Further reading Popular Wennergren, Emil Earl (1948) The "Flying Saucers" Episode Peeples, Curtis (1995) Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth Saler, Benson; Ziegler, Charles A.; Moore, Charles (1997) UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth Clarke, David (2015) How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Mythhttps://books.google.com/books?id=K_R0CQAAQBAJ How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth David Clarke May 14, 2015 Aurum 9781781314722 Google Books Arnold, Gordon (2021) Flying Saucers Over America: The UFO Craze of 1947 Scholarly 303215667 Bullard Thomas E 1982 Mysteries in the eye of the beholder: UFOs and their correlates as a folkloric theme past and present 10.1057/9780230361362_12 A Ghost in the Machine: How Sociology Tried to Explain (Away) American Flying Saucers and European Ghost Rockets, 1946–1947 Imagining Outer Space 2012 Lagrange Pierre 224–244 978-1-349-31215-3 Mckee Gabriel 'Reality – Is it a Horror?': Richard Shaver's Subterranean World and the Displaced Self The Journal of Gods and Monsters 18 July 2020 1 1 1–17 10.58997/jgm.v1i1.1 225543859 https://godsandmonsters-ojs-txstate.tdl.org/godsandmonsters/index.php/godsandmonsters/article/view/1 free References Bibliography 16 July 2017 Roswell myth lives on despite the established facts Albuquerque Journal Kendrick Frazier Kendrick Frazier https://www.abqjournal.com/1033584/roswell-myth-lives-on-despite-the-established-facts.html https://web.archive.org/web/20171228090759/https://www.abqjournal.com/1033584/roswell-myth-lives-on-despite-the-established-facts.html 28 December 2017 dead Kathryn S. Olmsted Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 https://books.google.com/books?id=u7Sd5vyOOtEC&pg=PA173 Chapter 6: Trust No One: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories from the 1970s to the 1990s 2009 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-975395-6 173–204 2016-03-16 Category:1940s fads and trends Category:Folklore of the United States Category:Apocalypticism Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1947 Category:Flying saucers Category:Folklore studies Category:June 1947 in the United States Category:July 1947 in the United States Category:Myths Category:Religious studies Category:UFO sightings in the United States